Duets: Summer 2012 Ratings

Published: July 21, 2012

Here are the ratings for Duets, the ABC singing competition that pairs Kelly Clarkson, John Legend, Robin Thicke, and Jennifer Nettles with aspiring singers. The first season of Duets typically airs Wednesday or Thursday nights on the ABC network.

Episode 01-01: Thursday, 05/24/12
1.7 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 6.76 million total viewers.Season average: 1.70 in the demo with 6.76 million.

It was an unimpressive start for this new series. It was in third place at 8pm and in second place for the remainder of the half hours, beaten by FOX’s So You Think You Can Dance by 29% in the demo. It may be that America is tiring of singing competitions or at least that they’re not ready to embrace another one so soon after the finales of The Voice and American Idol. Perhaps the network would have benefited from waiting a few weeks to premiere this one.

Note: These ratings are collected by the Nielsen company and are the final national numbers. These are different from the fast affiliate numbers which are just estimates of the actual ratings and are reported on by most other outlets. The final nationals are typically released within 24 hours of the programming or, in the case of weekends and holidays, a couple days later.

What do you think? Do you like the Duets TV series? Do you think it should be cancelled or renewed for a second season? How does it compare to others in this genre?